1737. Mode of Manufacturing Vinegar

1737.    Mode of Manufacturing Vinegar. Keep the vinegar room at a temperature of from 75° to 85° Fahr., and maintain the temperature of the generators at 95° to 100°. Then make up a mixture or wash composed of the following ingredients: 3 gallons common whiskey; 4 gallons manufactured vinegar; 33 gallons pure water. Muspratt uses 15 or 20 gallons of his standard liquor (see last receipt), diluted with GO gallons soft water. The water, if not clear, must be filtered through charcoal. Draw off every hour 4 gallons of vinegar from each generator, and pour in at the top 4 gallons of the above wash, with an additional quart for waste in manufacturing; and pour the vinegar into another generator as soon as it is drawn. Vinegar is thus made by being passed only once or twice through the shavings, according to the quality and degree of strength required. Keep a large tank to hold the vinegar when made, and put £ gallon of molasses into it every day until you get a bed 2 or 3 inches thick. The molasses will improve the vinegar and give it a fine color. This is the quickest process which has yet been obtained for manufacturing large quantities, and the vinegar made in this way finds ready sale.

1738. Useful Hints to Those Making Vinegar by the Quick Method

1738.    Useful Hints to Those Making Vinegar by the Quick Method. The success of the whole process of making vinegar by the German, or quick method, depends almost entirely upon the free circulation of air throughout the generator. It sometimes happens that the vinegar, when it comes from the generator, is not perfectly clear and transparent; to remedy this, some manufacturers use two false bottoms to each generator, and have a bed of white sand, 15 inches deep, upon the lower one. The sand will have to be packed in before the chips are, as follows: First cover the false bottom with flannel, to prevent the sand from coming through the holes, then put in a layer of sand 5 inches deep, cover this with two thicknesses of flannel, and then another layer of sand; repeat this again, and then pack in the chips as already directed. This will produce an article of a fine color, and will pass for a fine wine-vinegar if colored. Persons who are skeptical about this way of making vinegar may test it at a trifling expense on a small scale by experimenting with a keg arranged on the same principle as the generators. Those who desire to go into the business extensively, can have a series of generators. They may be arranged one above the other, and connected from floor to floor by gutta percha tubes, and thus vinegar may be made by passing once through three generators, instead of two or three times through one generator.

1739. To Make Vinegar Quickly

1739.      To Make Vinegar Quickly. Take a cask or hogshead with the head out, and a faucet near the bottom; fill it with beech shavings prepared as in No. 1735; or, instead of shavings, the casks may be filled with corncobs or beech chips ; over these lay a coffee sack, and cover it with fine shavings, to keep the heat in. Next throw some good vinegar on the shavings, and let it soak in for a few hours; then draw it off through the faucet and throw it on to the shavings again, repeating this until the shavings are thoroughly soured, and adding each time 1 quart of high wines to the vinegar before throwing it back on the shavings; this addition prevents the vinegar from becoming flat by the absorption of the acid by the shavings. Then mix 1 gallon 90 per cent, high wines, and 1 quart molasses, with 14 gallons river water; pour it upon the shavings ; draw it off and put it on the shavings again 2 or 3 times a day until sour. By using several casks, sufficient vinegar may be made at a time to put into barrels. Sour ale, or the rinsings of sugar hogsheads, may be poured on the shavings and turned into good vinegar in this way. It is better for the fluid to be weak at first, adding the molasses or other material being converted into vinegar, by degrees during the successive drawings. By following this plan, the strength of the vinegar may be gradually increased to almost any degree.